We have recently bought a 3204 with Picolog to perform some simple data capture (load in Newtons against displacement in mm, using a load cell and linear transducer).

When capturing data I know it is possible to sample in realtime at a very high rate, but when viewing the spreadsheet or x/y plot of the recording afterwards it seems that although data is captured at the rate i have set (for example 10ms) the resolution is very low, i.e. when applying load the gap between captured data is consistently around 3N (load range during the test is 0 - 50N, applied slowly by hand). Changing the sample rate does not improve this. Is this just something conected with the 3204 (non-adjustable capture rate at the BNC connectors maybe?) or am i doing something wrong with Picolog? I seem to only be able to pick up the same 15 load figures every time, e.g. 1.24N, 4.75N, 7.88N, never anything in between. Is there anyway of increasing the resolution - if thats the right term for it?

Do you mean a vertical resolution? This for the 3204 is 8 bits. I am not aware of any way to increase this in Picolog. If the jumps in values you are seeing are too big then it could be a different issue. You need to make sure you are using as much as the voltage input range as possible - this will increase the resolution over the input. An 8 bit resolution should provide you with 256 points on the vertical axis over the whole range; does this seem right to what you are seeing?